Geology of Ben Nevis
What lies beneath Britain’s highest peak?
The rocks of Ben Nevis tell an explosive story: around 410 million years ago, the mountain was an active volcano spewing lava and ash onto the metamorphic rocks of the Caledonian Mountains. Its final eruption was probably quite a violent one - so much so that the top of the mountain collapsed into the granitic magma chamber beneath, forming a caldera (think Mount St Helens but in Scotland). Never to erupt again, the igneous rocks of Ben Nevis were exposed to millions of years of geological forces that moulded it into the famous shape we see today.
My favourite vintage geological maps inspired the design of this print. It examines the Ben Nevis complex from two angles: at the top is a map view, revealing the concentric nature of the rocks; at the bottom is a southwest-to-northeast cross-section, showing the relationships of these rocks below the surface.
Three-colour A3 riso print printed in Inverness on 100% recycled and FSC® certified paper.
An example of areas where the paper shifted, leaving gaps, and uneven coverage with ink in the pink section. Perfectly imperfect.
Embracing the imperfections
Riso printing is not like your traditional printing: unlike a full-colour ink printer that prints the whole image in one go, a riso printer prints every colour separately using stencils. This means that each print is ever-so-slightly different from the next one: if the paper shifts slightly, the stencil lines may not line up perfectly; large areas of ink may have uneven coverage if the ink doesn’t flow smoothly; colours on some prints may be lighter or darker than on others. It’s all part of riso printing. But rest assured that these quirks don’t diminish the prints’ quality. Quite the opposite: they make every print completely unique.
